Roaring 1920s: Bix Beiderbecke & His Gang - At the Jazz Band Ball (1927)

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Bix Beiderbecke and His Gang (Bix Beiderbecke (c); Bill Rank (tb); Don Murray (cl); Adrian Rollini (bsx); Frank Signorelli (p); Chauncey Morehouse (dm) - At The Jazz Band Ball, Fox-Trot (La Rocca – Shields) Parlophon 1927 (Rec.in USA, Italian product)

NOTE: "At The Jazz Band Ball" is a jazz tune composed in 1917 by Lawrence Shields, a Dixieland clarinetist, and Nick La Rocca, a cornetist and trumpeter, who were members of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the first American jazz orchestra to record commercially. The tune was first recorded by Vocalion in September 1917 as 'At The Jass Band Ball', and also by ODJB in March 1918 on the Victor label with 'Ostrich Walk' on the flip side. A third version was recorded on the Columbia label in London, UK in April 1919. The following years saw a number of notable performances by several first-rate jazz bands, including Bix Beiderbecke and His Gang (1927), Bobby Hackett (1937), Bob Cosby (1937), Mugsy Spanier (in 1939 and 1944), Bud Freeman (1940), Phil Napoleon (1946), Sidney Bechet (1949), Eddie Condon (1950) or Gene Krupa (1950). Of all of them, however, Beiderbecke's version is considered the most engaging, the most jazzy, the clearest and featuring sensational instrumental solos by Bix Beiderbecke (c), Adrian Rollini (bsx) or Frank Signorelli (p).
The slideshow showcases some exquisite Art Deco jazzband-ball themed magazine covers from the period.